Spotlight: Sanjay Kak

Sanjay Kak is an independent documentary filmmaker whose recent work reflects his interests in ecology, alternatives and resistance politics. His films WORDS ON WATER (about the struggle against large dams in the Narmada valley in central India), and IN THE FOREST HANGS A BRIDGE (about the indigenous Adi tribe in Arunachal, north-east India, gathering to build a 1000 ft long bridge of cane and bamboo), have been widely screened both in India and abroad. WORDS ON WATER (2003) won Best Long Film prize at the International Festival of Environmental Film & Video, Brazil. IN THE FOREST HANGS A BRIDGE (1999) received the "Golden Lotus" for Best Documentary Film at the 1999 National Film Awards in India. The film also won the "Asian Gaze" Award at the Pusan Short Film Festival, Korea. His work also includes ONE WEAPON (1997), a video about democracy in the 50th year of Indian independence, and HARVEST OF RAIN (1995), made in association with the Centre for Science & Environment, New Delhi, India. As Producer and Director he has also made twinned films on the theme of migration, THIS LAND, MY LAND, ENG-LAND! (1993) looking at people of Indian origin in the fringes of the city of London and A HOUSE AND A HOME (1993) in post-apartheid South Africa. He has also made CAMBODIA: ANGKOR REMEMBERED (1990), a reflection on the monument and its place in Khmer society. Sanjay's latest film JASHN-E-AZADI: HOW WE CELEBRATE FREEDOM - one of IndiePix's most thought-provoking and controversial documentaries - recently played to a packed house at the world's largest international documentary festival in Amsterdam in Nov. 2007. The film explores how the struggle for Azadi (freedom) has affected the lives of people living in the Kashmir Valley. The film has already generated strong reactions the world over, with praise for its courageous honesty, to outrage from some quarters in India: earlier this year police stopped several screenings in Mumbai. It is however a beautifully told story of the lives of ordinary people in an extreme situation that resonates with the pictures of conflict we see on our screens from many other zones of conflict the world over. As a consequence of the troubles the film ran into with the Police in Mumbai, all kinds of audiences came to the support of the film. In the months since then there have been more than 140 small, medium, whatever of the film in India. Sanjay says, "this is a growing tendency in India, the ability of audiences to take on our antiquated censorship rules by simply screening films. The availability of the film for an online download will be an integral part of such audience strategies in the future." Born in 1958, Sanjay read Economics and Sociology at Delhi University, and is a self-taught film-maker who first discovered the documentary while working in television (1984-1990). Based in New Delhi, he is actively involved in the Indian documentary film movement, as part of the Films for Freedom platform, the Delhi Film Archive, and in the Campaign against Censorship.

Jashn-e-Azadi (How We celebrate Freedom) For Institutions and Libraries: Click here to buy an institutional copy. Amidst the everyday violence and ever-present fear in Kashmir, there are no easy answers to such questions. Where truth has been an early victim, all language, speech, poetry, even cinema, becomes inadequate…    more      Words on Water Out on DVD soon; To Pre-Order this film please send an email to shreekant@indiepix.net In a world where the use of violence has become the arbiter of all political debate, Words on Water is about a sustained non-violent resistance, that almost joyous defiance, which empowers the people as they struggle for their rights…    more      Jashn-e-Azadi (How We celebrate Freedom) - Download For Institutions and Libraries: Click here to buy an institutional copy. Amidst the everyday violence and ever-present fear in Kashmir, there are no easy answers to such questions. Where truth has been an early victim, all language, speech, poetry, even cinema, becomes inadequate…    more      Jashn-e-Azadi (How We celebrate Freedom) - Institutional FREE Shipping on Buying an Institutional Copy. Amidst the everyday violence and ever-present fear in Kashmir, there are no easy answers to such questions. Where truth has been an early victim, all language, speech, poetry, even cinema, becomes inadequate to describe what we know and feel here. So we reshape our curiosity, and…    more